MD 97 percentile MCAT, low cumGPA and sGPA, trend of improvement

[Prometheus123]

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Do you guys have any suggestions about what schools I should apply to? I know I'm an underdog, but I'm working with what I've got.

MCAT: 519, the 97th percentile. Are there schools that weigh the MCAT more heavily?

I got a terrible GPA Of ~2.3 on my first 2.5 years of college. Then I took a leave of absence for 4 years, decided to become a physician, and transferred to a new school. On my grades since transferring two years ago, I've gotten a 3.93 GPA. That averages out to a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and a cumulative sGPA of ~3.34.

One experienced SDN member said that given my trend of improvement, I should consider myself a ~3.6 cumGPA applicant.

I'm a resident of Oregon, so I'm definitely applying to OHSU. I would strongly prefer to go to an MD school for complicated personal reasons that don't matter here. I prefer to go to school on the West Coast, but I'll take what I can get.

ECs:

• 204.5 hours of direct patient contact volunteering in the hospital.
• 61 hours of formal research experience, most of it in 2010, not of great quality
• Several extensive and unique leadership experiences. Hard to describe in bullet points.
• 14 hours of shadowing MDs
• Fair amount of paid non-medical work experience doing canvassing as a manager, freelance content writing, and Uber driving
• A meaningful summer volunteer experience in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina while I was still in high school. I planned not to include it because it's high school. Should I? It was meaningful, and I could talk about that.

 

[Toutie]

Do you guys have any suggestions about what schools I should apply to? I know I'm an underdog, but I'm working with what I've got.

MCAT: 519, the 97th percentile. Are there schools that weigh the MCAT more heavily?

I got a terrible GPA Of ~2.3 on my first 2.5 years of college. Then I took a leave of absence for 4 years, decided to become a physician, and transferred to a new school. On my grades since transferring two years ago, I've gotten a 3.93 GPA. That averages out to a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and a cumulative sGPA of ~3.34.

One experienced SDN member said that given my trend of improvement, I should consider myself a ~3.6 cumGPA applicant.

I'm a resident of Oregon, so I'm definitely applying to OHSU. I would strongly prefer to go to an MD school for complicated personal reasons that don't matter here. I prefer to go to school on the West Coast, but I'll take what I can get.

What do the rest of your EC's look like? Clinical paid or volunteer experience? Non-clinical volunteering? Shadowing? Research? Leadership?

 

[Prometheus123]

What do the rest of your EC's look like? Clinical paid or volunteer experience? Non-clinical volunteering? Shadowing? Research? Leadership?

• 204.5 hours of direct patient contact volunteering in the hospital.
• 61 hours of formal research experience, most of it in 2010, not of great quality
• Several extensive and unique leadership experiences. Hard to describe in bullet points. I'll PM you those ones.
• 14 hours of shadowing MDs
• Fair amount of paid non-medical work experience doing canvassing as a manager, freelance content writing, and Uber driving
• A meaningful summer volunteer experience in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina while I was still in high school. I planned not to include it because it's high school. Should I? It was meaningful, and I could talk about that.

 

[Faha]

You could try these schools:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
GW
Georgetown
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
Tulane
Eastern Virginia
The GPA-MCAT grid shows your chances for a MD acceptance are in the 50% range.

 

[Goro]

I suggest the following:
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Mayo
Pitt
Your state schools
Tulane
BU
Case
Tufts
Dartmouth
Albany
NYMC
Wake
EVMS
Rosy Franklin
Loyola
Netter
Any DO school.

Nonclinical volunteering??????? I don't see that listed. What happened in high school stays in high school.

Do you guys have any suggestions about what schools I should apply to? I know I'm an underdog, but I'm working with what I've got.

MCAT: 519, the 97th percentile. Are there schools that weigh the MCAT more heavily?

I got a terrible GPA Of ~2.3 on my first 2.5 years of college. Then I took a leave of absence for 4 years, decided to become a physician, and transferred to a new school. On my grades since transferring two years ago, I've gotten a 3.93 GPA. That averages out to a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and a cumulative sGPA of ~3.34.

One experienced SDN member said that given my trend of improvement, I should consider myself a ~3.6 cumGPA applicant.

I'm a resident of Oregon, so I'm definitely applying to OHSU. I would strongly prefer to go to an MD school for complicated personal reasons that don't matter here. I prefer to go to school on the West Coast, but I'll take what I can get.

ECs:

• 204.5 hours of direct patient contact volunteering in the hospital.
• 61 hours of formal research experience, most of it in 2010, not of great quality
• Several extensive and unique leadership experiences. Hard to describe in bullet points.
• 14 hours of shadowing MDs
• Fair amount of paid non-medical work experience doing canvassing as a manager, freelance content writing, and Uber driving
• A meaningful summer volunteer experience in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina while I was still in high school. I planned not to include it because it's high school. Should I? It was meaningful, and I could talk about that.

 

[Prometheus123]

What do the rest of your EC's look like? Clinical paid or volunteer experience? Non-clinical volunteering? Shadowing? Research? Leadership?

Do you guys have any suggestions about what schools I should apply to? I know I'm an underdog, but I'm working with what I've got.

MCAT: 519, the 97th percentile. Are there schools that weigh the MCAT more heavily?

I got a terrible GPA Of ~2.3 on my first 2.5 years of college. Then I took a leave of absence for 4 years, decided to become a physician, and transferred to a new school. On my grades since transferring two years ago, I've gotten a 3.93 GPA. That averages out to a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and a cumulative sGPA of ~3.34.

One experienced SDN member said that given my trend of improvement, I should consider myself a ~3.6 cumGPA applicant.

I'm a resident of Oregon, so I'm definitely applying to OHSU. I would strongly prefer to go to an MD school for complicated personal reasons that don't matter here. I prefer to go to school on the West Coast, but I'll take what I can get.

ECs:

• 204.5 hours of direct patient contact volunteering in the hospital.
• 61 hours of formal research experience, most of it in 2010, not of great quality
• Several extensive and unique leadership experiences. Hard to describe in bullet points.
• 14 hours of shadowing MDs
• Fair amount of paid non-medical work experience doing canvassing as a manager, freelance content writing, and Uber driving
• A meaningful summer volunteer experience in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina while I was still in high school. I planned not to include it because it's high school. Should I? It was meaningful, and I could talk about that.

For posterity, here's some advice pulled from other threads:

Schools that reward reinvention:

Do any of the California schools reward reinvention?:
USC (loves a strong MCAT)
UCSF (more unpredictable than USC)
Touro, CA
Western

Schools that reward reinvention? (includes excellent advice from @DrMidlife and @Goro ):
Your state school
Tulane
NYMC
Albany
Drexel
Gtown
GWU
U Miami
BU
Duke
Columbia
UCSF
Case
Vandy
Rosy Franklin
New MD schools (but I can't recommend CNU)
Goro: "A number of MD schools (like U UT) post on their websites that they give more weight to the last 2-3 years of a candidate's record."

I will continue adding to this when I have time. Gotta make dinner, then pick up in-laws.

 

[Prometheus123]

I suggest the following:
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Mayo
Pitt
Your state schools
Tulane
BU
Case
Tufts
Dartmouth
Albany
NYMC
Wake
EVMS
Rosy Franklin
Loyola
Netter
Any DO school.

Nonclinical volunteering??????? I don't see that listed. What happened in high school stays in high school.

Got it, no high school. I taught a meditation class at a memory care facility for 12 hours. Is that clinical? I've also done one or two minor volunteer projects that weren't extensive or significant that I haven't listed.

I have a unique experience that was non-clinical volunteering, although I was planning to classify it as leadership. There's no way to describe it in a few words, so I'll post the blurb here in case you want to know.

 

[Prometheus123]

Short answer, non-clinical volunteer hours: 12 +/- 500.

Would it serve me better and permissible to classify the 500 hour thing as non-clinical volunteering?

Does the 500 hour community organizing/activism activity feel like grounds for rejection in your gut? Politics are dangerous waters. However, my position was on getting money out of politics so politicians represent we the people instead of special interests, which 85% of Americans (i.e. most conservatives and liberals) agree on.

I suggest the following:
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Mayo
Pitt
Your state schools
Tulane
BU
Case
Tufts
Dartmouth
Albany
NYMC
Wake
EVMS
Rosy Franklin
Loyola
Netter
Any DO school.

Nonclinical volunteering??????? I don't see that listed. What happened in high school stays in high school.

 

[Prometheus123]

I suggest the following:
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Mayo
Pitt
Your state schools
Tulane
BU
Case
Tufts
Dartmouth
Albany
NYMC
Wake
EVMS
Rosy Franklin
Loyola
Netter
Any DO school.

Nonclinical volunteering??????? I don't see that listed. What happened in high school stays in high school.

I forgot to say earlier, thank you for posting this list!

I'm trying to compile tidbits you've posted in previous threads about this to make a sort of best-of compilation summary thread of previous ones, to contribute to the community. Off to the airport.

 

[Goro]

I have yet to see evidence from SDNers that USC rewards reinvention. I have a suspicion that they are a service loving school, but perhaps the wise @gyngyn can provide his comments? UCSF does, but one has to have the research chops too.

Do any of the California schools reward reinvention?:
USC (loves a strong MCAT)
UCSF (more unpredictable than USC)
Touro, CA
Western.

 

[Goro]

Short answer, non-clinical volunteer hours: 12 +/- 500.

Would it serve me better and permissible to classify the 500 hour thing as non-clinical volunteering?

Does the 500 hour community organizing/activism activity feel like grounds for rejection in your gut? Politics are dangerous waters. However, my position was on getting money out of politics so politicians represent we the people instead of special interests, which 85% of Americans (i.e. most conservatives and liberals) agree on.

What exactly did you do??

 

[Prometheus123]

I have yet to see evidence from SDNers that USC rewards reinvention. I have a suspicion that they are a service loving school, but perhaps the wise @gyngyn can provide his comments? UCSF does, but one has to have the research chops too.

That's too bad. Thank you. I will update my compilation post about this tomorrow.

What I did? To engage the public, I wrote what I called “the Declaration of Occupy Portland” and published it. I recruited local small business owners, nonprofit directors, the head of the Oregon AFL-CIO union, and academics to form the Occupy Vision Working Group. As a team, we organized two well-attended town halls at indoor venues to discuss vision, whether we should have a declaration, and if so, what it should say. I also persuaded an artist to make a logo and paid to have sweatshirts made with the design, which I then sold to raise money. Those are some highlights.

 

[Goro]

That's too bad. Thank you. I will update my compilation post about this tomorrow.

What I did? To engage the public, I wrote what I called “the Declaration of Occupy Portland” and published it. I recruited local small business owners, nonprofit directors, the head of the Oregon AFL-CIO union, and academics to form the Occupy Vision Working Group. As a team, we organized two well-attended town halls at indoor venues to discuss vision, whether we should have a declaration, and if so, what it should say. I also persuaded an artist to make a logo and paid to have sweatshirts made with the design, which I then sold to raise money. Those are some highlights.

That's it? I'd probably wait list you for that. I don't want to get into politics, but this is from a Yellow Dog democrat here: The Occupy movement was probably the single least effective social protest movement in my lifetime.

Medicine is a service profession! Here's what you need to do: show off your altruistic, humanistic side.

Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you.

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.

 

[Prometheus123]

I agree, it was totally ineffective! I was one of the people trying to change that from the inside, but the culture of Occupy was so reflexively against leadership of any kind that it was impossible to get much done, but that's a long, different story.

I don't have any longstanding recent service commitment like that. I will start that ASAP.

My wife and I have made and given meals to homeless people a few times, but it was for personal spiritual reasons and not through an organization. Not a lot of hours either. I can't use that, right?

That's it? I'd probably wait list you for that. I don't want to get into politics, but this is from a Yellow Dog democrat here: The Occupy movement was probably the single least effective social protest movement in my lifetime.

Medicine is a service profession! Here's what you need to do: show off your altruistic, humanistic side.

Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you.

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.

 

[Goro]

My wife and I have made and given meals to homeless people a few times, but it was for personal spiritual reasons and not through an organization. Not a lot of hours either. I can't use that, right?

You could fine a way to mention it or list it somewhere.

 

[Prometheus123]

You could fine a way to mention it or list it somewhere.

In its own activity? I'm not sure where else it would fit.

Could I count the hours buying and preparing the food, or just distributing it? Full disclosure, we also ate a lot of the food.

 

[Goro]

In its own activity? I'm not sure where else it would fit.

Could I count the hours buying and preparing the food, or just distributing it? Full disclosure, we also ate a lot of the food.

Since you can't back up the hours, just keep it small.

 

[Prometheus123]

Since you can't back up the hours, just keep it small.

Ok, I'll stick with a reasonable estimation of distribution hours. Thank you!

 

[candbgirl]

OP I thought you were submitting yesterday. Anyway, I think your ECs are sort of weak. 14 hours of shadowing? 61 hours of research? No nonclinical experiences? Nice MCAT-congrats on that score.


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[Prometheus123]

OP I thought you were submitting yesterday. Anyway, I think your ECs are sort of weak. 14 hours of shadowing? 61 hours of research? No nonclinical experiences? Nice MCAT-congrats on that score.


Sent from my iPad using SDN mobile app

Best laid plans get eaten by mice (that's the saying, right?). I'm hoping to submit today or tomorrow at the latest, although that makes me extremely nervous because I'm sure there's more polishing to do, especially on my activities. You're right, my ECs are pretty weak. I'll work on that for next year.

 

[Prometheus123]

I suggest the following:
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Mayo
Pitt
Your state schools
Tulane
BU
Case
Tufts
Dartmouth
Albany
NYMC
Wake
EVMS
Rosy Franklin
Loyola
Netter
Any DO school.

Nonclinical volunteering??????? I don't see that listed. What happened in high school stays in high school.

My father-in-law insists on breathing rapidly and relatively shallowly while doing yoga and exercise. While this pattern may be useful in exercise, in my experience and training, slower, deeper breathing increases the carbon dioxide in the blood, which has a calming effect. In my experience, it makes you feel peaceful. I was just reading this paper Yoga Breathing, Meditation, and Longevity to try find enough evidence to be able to confidently tell him he should use slow, deep breathing for most of yoga at least. Guess who one of the lead authors is. An associate professor of psychiatry, MD, at NYMC.

In addition, I found research on Temple's homepage from a physician-scientist, MD who teaches there showing pretty clearly that metabolic dysfunction not only precedes protein aggregation in Alzheimer's, but probably also causes it. I believe in my gut this is the case based on the little I've read on the topic. They found the hyperphosphorylated tau seemed to be caused by induction of p38, so that's a great new drug target. Treating neurodegenerative diseases based on this new neuro-immuno-endocrinology paradigm is what I'm most excited about trying clinically.

 

[Lamegane]

Do you guys have any suggestions about what schools I should apply to? I know I'm an underdog, but I'm working with what I've got.

MCAT: 519, the 97th percentile. Are there schools that weigh the MCAT more heavily?

I got a terrible GPA Of ~2.3 on my first 2.5 years of college. Then I took a leave of absence for 4 years, decided to become a physician, and transferred to a new school. On my grades since transferring two years ago, I've gotten a 3.93 GPA. That averages out to a cumulative GPA of 3.2 and a cumulative sGPA of ~3.34.

One experienced SDN member said that given my trend of improvement, I should consider myself a ~3.6 cumGPA applicant.

I'm a resident of Oregon, so I'm definitely applying to OHSU. I would strongly prefer to go to an MD school for complicated personal reasons that don't matter here. I prefer to go to school on the West Coast, but I'll take what I can get.

ECs:

• 204.5 hours of direct patient contact volunteering in the hospital.
• 61 hours of formal research experience, most of it in 2010, not of great quality
• Several extensive and unique leadership experiences. Hard to describe in bullet points.
• 14 hours of shadowing MDs
• Fair amount of paid non-medical work experience doing canvassing as a manager, freelance content writing, and Uber driving
• A meaningful summer volunteer experience in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina while I was still in high school. I planned not to include it because it's high school. Should I? It was meaningful, and I could talk about that.

I am not familiar with the west coast system. However, from what you have, tou can get into
Howard
Rutgers New Jersey Medical school
Meharry
Morehouse
University of Arizona -Tucson
California northsate UCOM
Rutgers Robert wood Johnson medical school

Also, try to improve your EC hours. By doing that and having a strong PS and LOR you can get into Columbia P&S, Icahn and many more.
Do not include any EC from high school.
Good luck

 

[Goro]

I am not familiar with the west coast system. However, from what you have, tou can get into
Howard
Rutgers New Jersey Medical school
Meharry
Morehouse
University of Arizona -Tucson
California northsate UCOM
Rutgers Robert wood Johnson medical school

Also, try to improve your EC hours. By doing that and having a strong PS and LOR you can get into Columbia P&S, Icahn and many more.
Do not include any EC from high school.
Good luck

SDNers should always do some research on schools before blithely posting lists.

Of the list above, three are HBCs. OP is not a URM.

Two are state schools that have a very low OOS accept rate, and one is the closest thing to a predatory Carib school on the US mainland.

 

[fldoctorgirl]

I am not familiar with the west coast system. However, from what you have, tou can get into
Howard
Rutgers New Jersey Medical school
Meharry
Morehouse
University of Arizona -Tucson
California northsate UCOM
Rutgers Robert wood Johnson medical school

Also, try to improve your EC hours. By doing that and having a strong PS and LOR you can get into Columbia P&S, Icahn and many more.
Do not include any EC from high school.
Good luck

I've seen you post lists for many people on this thread. You should stop recommending the HBCs to people who aren't URM. Don't post school lists when you don't really know much about a school...doing a quick MSAR search for GPAs and MCATs that match an applicant's is not effective.

 

[gyngyn]

I am not familiar with the west coast system. However, from what you have, tou can get into
Howard
Rutgers New Jersey Medical school
Meharry
Morehouse
University of Arizona -Tucson
California northsate UCOM
Rutgers Robert wood Johnson medical school

Also, try to improve your EC hours. By doing that and having a strong PS and LOR you can get into Columbia P&S, Icahn and many more.
Do not include any EC from high school.
Good luck

None of these would be good choices for OP.
OP is white: Howard, Meharry and Morehouse are mission-based schools where white matriculants are the distinct minority. There were only 11 white matriculants at Howard (<10%), 7 at Meharry (6%) and 11 at Morehouse. There is no evidence that OP fits the mission at any of these schools.

Both Rutgers schools have a strong preference for IS candidates and even the OOS candidates tend to be from the region.

Northstate is the school that has chosen to deny its students access to federal loans and payback mechanisms.

Although AZ matriculated 43 OOS students, OP's MCAT is well above the 90th percentile for matriculants. As an OOS applicant, that makes it quite unlikely that he would be interviewed.

 

[Lamegane]

None of these would be good choices for OP.
OP is white: Howard, Meharry and Morehouse are mission-based schools where white matriculants are the distinct minority. There were only 11 white matriculants at Howard (<10%), 7 at Meharry (6%) and 11 at Morehouse. There is no evidence that OP fits the mission at any of these schools.

Both Rutgers schools have a strong preference for IS candidates and even the OOS candidates tend to be from the region.

Northstate is the school that has chosen to deny its students access to federal loans and payback mechanisms.

Although AZ matriculated 43 OOS students, OP's MCAT is well above the 90th percentile for matriculants. As an OOS applicant, that makes it quite unlikely that he would be interviewed.

I did not know the person was referring to OP, based on the GPAs i assumed it was urm. Thanks for correcting me.

 

[gyngyn]

I did not know the person was referring to OP, based on the GPAs i assumed it was urm. Thanks for correcting me.

!

 

[bears1992]

I did not know the person was referring to OP, based on the GPAs i assumed it was urm. Thanks for correcting me.

Wat?

 

[hall1ms1b]

I've seen you post lists for many people on this thread. You should stop recommending the HBCs to people who aren't URM. Don't post school lists when you don't really know much about a school...doing a quick MSAR search for GPAs and MCATs that match an applicant's is not effective.

What is HBC ?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[xochitl]

What is HBC ?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Hudson's Bay Company, a Canadian retailer......lol jk

Historically Black College

you might also see HBCU

 

[ChopinLiszt]

This turned into bizarre thread...
OP, I have roughly the same MCAT and a little higher (but still below average) GPA. I'm applying to state schools, mid-tiers, and a handful of reaches since I have some unique life experiences that I hope will stand out. I know we all think we're special snowflakes, but there's no way to tell how adcoms will view our apps. (or IF they will view our apps, haha)

State schools. Mid-low tiers. A few reaches, wherever you dream of going, just in case. But don't count on it - I know I'm not. 😉

And for the love, go volunteer somewhere.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

based on the GPAs i assumed it was urm. Thanks for correcting me.

Oh man you just made my day